Dealing with disruptors, bullies and iconoclasts...

As I was watching a documentary about Yves Mourousi, a former famous French TV anchorman, I realized that he wasn’t much different from his countryman Tapie, the Italian Berlusconi, Trump obviously, or other folks who are gutsy enough to break all rules in order to force themselves into and dominate an exchange with others. 

For them, the name of the game is inserting themselves into a strata of society, in the hope that others will be out of resources to call their action and will acquiesce to the most outrageous breach of etiquette. 

In that particular situation, Mourousi who tasked himself into interviewing former French President Mitterand, sat square on his guest’s desk to begin their conversation, while the head of state couldn’t think of what to say. 

That’s right, actions from these daring individuals are often so unexpected, weird and shocking that no one is ready for them and has trained themselves to counter them, which explains why they work in 99% of the situations. 

It would take someone who’s been caught many times by such manipulators to have developed and also recall a lightning-quick response to put such bullies back in their rightful place. 

Over the years, I’ve dealt with my share of obnoxious characters playing that game and must admit that while I’m not bad at it, I still need to think on my feet and not get intimidated in order to fire the proper response at the right time!